Clinical Manifestations and Prognostic Factors of Pneumocystis jirovecii Pneumonia without HIV.

Introduction: Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia (PCP) can occur in HIV patients but also in those without HIV (non-HIV PCP) but with other causes of immunodeficiency including malignancy or rheumatic diseases.

Objective And Methods: To evaluate the clinical presentation and prognostic factors of non-HIV PCP, we retrospectively reviewed all patients diagnosed as having PCP without HIV at Kameda Medical Center, Chiba, Japan, from January 2005 until June 2012. For the purpose of examining a prognostic factor for non-HIV PCP with 30-day mortality, we compared the characteristics of patients, clinical symptoms, radiological images, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status (PS), and the time from the onset of respiratory symptoms to the start of therapy, in both survival and fatality groups.

Detection of pure ground-glass nodules in the lung by low-dose multi-detector computed tomography, with use of an iterative reconstruction method: a comparison with conventional image reconstruction by the filtered back-projection method.

Purpose: To evaluate the feasibility of the iterative reconstruction (IR) method with low-dose multi-detector computed tomography (MDCT) for lung cancer screening.

Materials And Methods: A chest CT phantom containing simulated ground-glass nodules (GGNs) of 5 different sizes was scanned by use of 16-row and 64-row MDCT. Tube currents of 10, 20, and 30 mA were used for the low-dose CT.

Fenestrations of the basilar artery demonstrated on magnetic resonance angiograms: an analysis of 212 cases.

Fenestration of the basilar artery (BA) is a rare variant of the intracranial artery, well demonstrated in autopsy and angiographic studies. Some angiographic series show a high incidence of associated aneurysms at the basilar fenestration site. The purpose of this study is to report the incidence of BA fenestration, its configurations, associated aneurysms, and arterial anomalies in a large series of intracranial MR angiograms (MRAs).

Is emphysema a risk factor for pneumothorax in CT-guided lung biopsy?

Introduction: Computed tomography (CT)-guided lung biopsy is commonly used to make a histological diagnosis for pulmonary lesions. Its most common complication is pneumothorax. While it is thought that CT-guided lung biopsy should be avoided in patients with emphysema, however, there is no scientific report documenting the relationship the occurrence of pneumothorax and the severity of emphysema.